Iowa coach Fran McCaffery looks like a high school math teacher, and in most settings that is how he conducts himself. I’ve had many conversations with McCaffery in person and on the phone, and on one occasion we had dinner in Las Vegas. He is charming, thoughtful, smart, funny and self-deprecating.
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When a game tips off, however, McCaffery morphs into someone I don’t recognize. He is intemperate, belligerent and demeaning to officials. It’s not just embarrassing to his school and the sport; it also hurts his team’s chances to win. When McCaffery goes off, his players are more likely to lose their composure. And subconsciously or not, it plants a seed of disdain in the minds of the officials, which could affect their judgment on close calls.
Last Tuesday, McCaffery went too far even by his standards. In the moments after his Hawkeyes, lost 90-70, at Ohio State, McCaffery chased referee Steve McJunkins up a tunnel and called him a “cheating m——–” and a “f—— disgrace.” Suffice to say, it was patently ridiculous for a coach to be so angry at an official following a 20-point loss. Several people were in the vicinity, and the Toledo Blade’s Kyle Rowland tweeted what he heard. As a result, the school suspended McCaffery for two games, and the Big Ten fined Iowa $10,000. Without McCaffery, the Hawkeyes were embarrassed at home by Rutgers on Saturday, 86-72.
This is the second time McCaffery has been disciplined for such behavior. In 2014, he received a one-game suspension from the Big Ten for rushing officials after being ejected in a game at Wisconsin. Apparently, he learned nothing from that experience. At a press conference on Wednesday, McCaffery went through the motions of apologizing, but then he pivoted to defend himself by saying his actions proved how “passionate” he is about his players. “I’m fighting for that, and I will continue to to that,” he said. “That will never change.” He also pointed out that he had made his remark in the tunnel as opposed to the court, as if that made it more justifiable. “My intention was for this to be sort of a private conversation,” he said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t become that.”
Actually, what’s unfortunate is that McCaffery’s behavior was consistent with what we are seeing from too many of his coaching peers. A few hours after McCaffery’s half-hearted mea culpa, Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis picked up a technical in the closing seconds of the Rebels’ loss at home to Tennessee because he threw his suit coat after one of his players was called for a charge. The play was obviously correct and happened a few feet in front of Davis, but he threw the tantrum anyway. The technical cost his team any chance it might have had to win, and it prompted Ole Miss fans to toss debris on the court. To his credit, Davis apologized afterward and acknowledged his culpability in inciting the fans.
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Elsewhere that same night, East Carolina coach Joe Dooley picked up two technical fouls in the second half of his team’s loss at home to Houston. Sophomore guard Shawn Williams — apparently following his coach’s example — was also ejected, as was a spectator who was one of many fans who threw garbage onto the court. The Pirates, by the way, lost by 34 points. Clearly, this was the refs’ fault.
The petulant behavior has gotten so out of control that over the last two years, the NCAA’s men’s basketball rules committee has included a directive to address bench decorum and sportsmanship among its annual points of emphasis for officials. The effort is ongoing. J.D. Collins, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials, told me he has produced 17 instructional videos for referees this season, and each one has included a teaching point on bench decorum. “This is something the rules committee has been very clear about,” Collins said. “It’s an area that is central to the health of our game.”
Look, I understand the pressure that coaches are under to win. This is sports, not church, and tempers are going to flare. But as the primary stewards of the game, it is up to these men — these grown-ups — to conduct themselves in a mature fashion. Nearly every game is televised or streamed these days, and the cameras love to focus on coaches who come unglued. Social media is there to boomerang every impolitic moment as well. The proliferation is hard to quantify, but if you watch college basketball regularly then you know what I am talking about.
Much of the complaining from coaches, the media and fans centers around the argument that referees are not held accountable for their mistakes. This is patently false. Conferences grade officials for every call and non-call they made in a game. Every one. The same holds true for the NCAA Tournament. Assignments are doled out accordingly. The better the grades, the better the games. And the overall success rate is a lot higher than most people assume. Collins told me that during last year’s tournament the officials were correct on 94.75 percent of their calls and non-calls. I doubt we could say the same thing for coaching decisions that are made over the course of a game.
Furthermore, the calls are replayed and freeze-framed during telecasts. If a ref screws up badly, it’s all over Twitter within seconds. Coaches also frequently produce their own video clips and send them to the league office if they are unhappy with an official’s work. If enough coaches complain about the same referee, he will have a harder time finding work the following season.
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I’ve heard the complaints that it’s unfair that referees don’t have to answer reporters’ questions after games the way coaches do. As a journalist, I am an advocate for transparency, and I think more progress should be made in this area. I do, however, understand the reasons why conferences and the NCAA want to keep their guys under wraps. It’s not like these refs have had a lot of media training. All they have to do is answer one question in a clunky way, and that creates a new set of problems. Often times, an official is made available to the media through an interview with a pool reporter. Meanwhile, the coaches are more than happy to take advantage of their very public platforms by blasting officials during postgame press conferences the way Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin did earlier this season. That doesn’t seem fair to me.
This isn’t just about the health of the game. Some of the top officials are as well-known as many coaches and players. That makes them targets. We saw this in the ugliest fashion with respect to referee John Higgins, who was targeted by Kentucky fans after John Calipari criticized the referees following the Wildcats’ loss to North Carolina in the 2017 Elite Eight. Higgins was harassed so badly that he filed a lawsuit against a UK-friendly media outlet. I’ve heard from many referees and supervisors about guys being subjected to public anger on a regular basis. In this environment, the last thing we need is to have the most visible and influential men in the sport encourage fans to take out their frustrations about a loss on the referees.
Do referees make mistakes? Of course. Are some refs not good at what they do? Naturally. But there are suitable and appropriate avenues to address those problems. They do not include throwing your suit jacket, screaming profanities and chasing guys up tunnels to accuse them of cheating, 20-point loss or not. Hopefully, the conferences and the NCAA will continue to clamp down on this bad behavior until coaches get the message and change their ways. Because March Madness is looming, and right now this sport is not ready for its close-up.
Other Hoop Thoughts
• For much of the season, Tennessee has scored so easily that it hasn’t always committed itself to playing Rick Barnes-style defense. The Volunteers did just that on Saturday, limiting Kentucky’s high-octane offense to 32 percent shooting and forcing 17 turnovers. That’s what happens when a proud team gets pissed off. Tennessee doesn’t have a classic rim protector, so it really needs to swarm perimeter players effectively. The Vols need to bottle that mentality and bring it with them to the NCAA Tournament. Stay angry!
• Speaking of Tennessee, here’s a factoid that may only interest me: The Vols have not had a freshman score a point this season. You don’t see that too often.
• You want another crazy nugget? Gonzaga forward Brandon Clarke has missed 96 missed field goals this season. He also has 96 blocks.
• By the way, Mark Few told me last week he is hopeful that 6-10 junior forward Killian Tillie will be back at some point after missing the last seven games with of a partially torn ligament in his right foot. Tillie is a dynamic inside-outside threat, but he has been sidelined or playing at sub-optimal capacity for most of the season. As good as he is, Few has to be careful about not disrupting things, because the Zags are absolutely rolling.
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• Hands down the biggest win of the weekend was scored by UCF, which won at Houston to snap the Cougars’ 33-game home win streak. That’s how a bubble team gets Capone.
• The other big bubble win of the weekend was scored by Utah State, but unfortunately, all anyone wanted to talk about was the video depicting what appeared to be the aftermath of a confrontation between the Wolf Pack and fans who stormed the court. Now most of you know how I feel about court storms (spoiler: hate ’em), but most schools at least go to the proper lengths to make sure that the opposing players and coaches can get off the floor safely. There was some security on hand, but clearly not enough. It also appears that there were some heated words exchanged between players and coaches of both teams in the handshake line. I suppose that will give ammunition to those who want to get rid of the handshake lines. (I’m definitely not one of those.) From what I understand, Nevada was redirected into the same tunnel as Utah State because the Wolf Pack couldn’t leave the court properly due to the presence of the fans. At any rate, it’s a shame the incident marred such a great game. I expect that the Mountain West Conference will weigh in on the matter sometime today.
• Oh, and with respect to the controversial charging call taken by Aggies guard Sam Merrill on Caleb Martin’s dunk with 33 seconds to play, I’m sorry to disappoint you all by saying the call was correct. I polled multiple officials and coordinators to be sure. There’s a lot of confusion over this, but it’s an NBA rule that the defender has to be in legal guarding position before the offensive player gathers the ball before taking off. In college, the rule is that the defender just has to be there before the driver leaves the floor. If you freeze the video – and isn’t it nice to be able to freeze the video as opposed to having to make that call in real time? – you can see Merrill clearly is in position while Martin’s left foot is planting on the floor. Heck of a dunk, though.
• Whenever I hear someone say there’s no such thing as moral victories, my standard reply is, “They’re better than immoral victories.” Of course there is such a thing as a moral victory, and Oklahoma State got two of them. This has been a challenging season, to say the least, for the Cowboys, who are down to seven scholarship players after dismissing three players in January after they were accused of vandalism. The Cowboys start three freshmen and are tied for last place in the Big 12 with a 3-13 record, but last week they lost at Texas Tech in overtime and gave Kansas all it wanted at home before falling by five. I love what coach Mike Boynton said afterward about his players: “They’re doing probably one of the hardest things to do, which is not allowing the results to affect the process.” Very Zen!
• Speaking of Texas Tech, what in the world has gotten into Chris Beard’s offense? Over their last nine games, the Red Raiders are averaging 79.3 points on 48.2 percent shooting. In their 20 previous games, they scored 70.1 points on 46.9 percent shooting. Keep in mind this team still leads the nation in defensive efficiency. That’s a pretty potent combination.
• This is the part of the season where we see all the Senior Day ceremonies, and they make me fahrklempt every time.
• Kansas has played the last six games without 6-5 senior guard Lagerald Vick, who left school to take care of some personal issues back home in Memphis. He still has not returned to campus, and we should know next week whether Vick will rejoin the team at all. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s 70-30 against.
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• You gotta be happy for Duke junior forward Jack White, who finally hit a 3-point shot on Saturday during the Blue Devils’ win over Miami after missing his previous 28 – yes, 28 – attempts. On the flip side, I continue to be befuddled as to why Mike Krzyzewski burned freshman Joey Baker’s redshirt if he’s going to play Baker in such a limited role. Even though Duke won by 30 points, Baker played just five minutes and did not attempt a shot. In the three games Baker has played since relinquishing the redshirt, he has amassed 11 minutes and is 0-of-2 from the floor. I realize Krzyzewski did this because he wants all hands on deck in pursuit of this championship, but in my opinion, he missed a great opportunity to force-feed Baker some minutes in preparation for the stretch run.
• Speaking of Duke, I understand the concern about Zion Williamson, but from everything I’ve heard about Grade 1 knee sprains (which are the least severe), a two-week recovery is pretty standard. Wednesday will mark two weeks from Zion’s injury. And I hear that even though Williamson is not practicing with the team, he has been rehabbing pretty hard. He did some band work during practice on Friday and apparently looked pretty intense. My guess is he will return for Saturday’s game at North Carolina, or at the least for the start of the ACC tournament. If we go another week to 10 days and he’s not back on the court, then you can start to get concerned.
• I love the way Zavier Simpson makes opposing point guards disappear.
• It’s not easy for Texas to lose its leading scorer, Kerwin Roach, who has been suspended for violating an athletic department policy. But I always like seeing a player take advantage of an opportunity to play. That’s what 6-5 sophomore guard Jase Febres has done. In the three games he has started in Roach’s place, Febres has made 20 of 39 from 3-point range, and he scored a career-high 25 points (on 8-of-10 3-point shooting) in the Longhorns’ win over Iowa State. In the 26 games prior to Roach’s suspension, Febres averaged 7.7 points on 36.1 percent 3-point shooting. Texas was very close to being 2-1 in Roach’s absence, but it blew a 19-point second-half lead to Baylor last Wednesday and lost in overtime. Roach could possibly rejoin the team for the postseason, but even if he does Shaka Smart should think long and hard before he pulls Febres out of the starting lineup.
• In similar fashion, Wisconsin junior guard Brevin Pritzl tied his season high by scoring 17 points on just five shots in the Badgers’ 61-57 win at home over Penn State. Pritzl has the highest 3-point percentage on the team (45.5), but he averages just 19.8 minutes and 5.1 points off the bench. I think Greg Gard should get him some more minutes because the offense can really stagnate at times.
• As long as I’m spying emerging shooting stars, allow me to recognize LSU 6-4 freshman guard Javonte Smart. With sophomore point guard Tremont Waters, the team’s leading scorer, sidelined by illness, Smart scored a season-high 29 points in the Tigers’ overtime win over Tennessee 0n Feb. 23. He followed that up by scoring a combined 36 points last week in wins over Texas A&M and Alabama. Now that Waters is back, it will be interesting to see if Smart will still hunt his shot or become overly deferential.
• Best college basketball name ever: Napoleon Lightning. Played for Saint Francis (Pa.) from 1981-85.
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• Best college cheer: For James (Fly) Williams, who played at Austin Peay from 1972-74: “The Fly is open. Let’s go Peay!”
• As good as Markus Howard can be, the other Marquette players can sometimes can fall into a bad habit of becoming spectators. Howard was brilliant in scoring 33 points against Creighton on Sunday, but no one else scored more than seven as the Golden Eagles lost by six. Collective efficiency is more important than individual brilliance this time of year.
• Bummer to hear Tom Izzo say on Saturday that he doesn’t know if 6-6 junior forward Kyle Ahrens will return this season because of a back injury. Ahrens had been an important fill-in after Josh Langford went out. It’s been one thing after another with this team.
• Speaking of the Spartans, I felt very happy for Indiana (and its fans) when the Hoosiers completed their season sweep of Michigan State on Saturday. Still, I have a really hard time believing that a team that is 6-12 in the Big Ten is going to get an at-large bid into the tournament. I realize Indiana has some good wins (most notably over Marquette and Louisville), but its résumé reminds me of Oklahoma State’s from last year. Just way too many losses to overcome.
• It’s pretty amazing that two weeks ago, no one was talking about Purdue winning the Big Ten regular season outright, but now the Boilermakers are poised to do just that if they can win at Minnesota and Northwestern this week. The interesting recent development has been how well 7-3 sophomore center Matt Haarms has played since Matt Painter reinserted him into the starting lineup three weeks ago. Haarms started 10 games early in the season, but when the team hit a skid and lost five of seven, Painter demoted him in favor of freshman Trevion Williams. Painter told me in January that coming off the bench suited Haarms’ personality, but as a starter over the last five games, he is averaging 14.8 points while making an astounding 74.3 percent of his shots, to go along with 7.0 rebounds per game. Just one more reason why the Boilermakers have a realistic chance to make their first Final Four since 1980. I hope they do!
• Don’t be surprised if I pick Kansas State to go to the Final Four.
• How ironic that on the day that UConn retired Ray Allen’s jersey – and what in God’s name took so long? – the Huskies shot 0-of-15 from behind the arc. I’m surprised Danny Hurley didn’t try to put ol’ Jesus Shuttlesworth in the game.
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• You know a team that’s crushing it right now that no one is talking about? VCU, that’s who. The Rams have won 10 in a row and are two games clear of Davidson atop the Atlantic 10 standings. They’re 36th in the NET rankings, 42nd on KenPom and have Quad 1 road wins over Texas and Dayton. Oh, and they’re also fifth in the country in defensive efficiency. Remember that on the off chance that you’re filling out a bracket two weeks hence.
• Given that Duke, North Carolina and Virginia are all well within range of being No. 1 seeds, don’t discount the possibility that all three teams end up on the top line. It wouldn’t be unprecedented for three teams from the same conference to do that. In 2009, Pittsburgh, Villanova and Louisville were all No. 1 seeds out of the Big East.
• When you’re making a list of disappointing teams, you gotta put Vanderbilt at or near the very top. I mean, I realize it was tough to lose Darius Garland early in the season, but should the Commodores really be winless in the SEC? Is everyone else on the roster really that bad?
• Cal has been one of the worst power-conference teams I’ve ever seen, so of course the Bears got their first Pac-12 win of the season at the expense of first-place Washington on Thursday night. College basketball is weird sometimes.
• Don’t buy into any assertion that “this is the worst bubble ever.” The truth is, this is the worst bubble since last year. Every year mediocre teams get into the tournament, which is why I advocate for a .500 conference record as a minimum for eligibility. It really is hard to believe that the idea of expanding the tournament was ever floated by smart, serious people.
• Having said that, I think the First Four gets a bad rap. First of all, as NCAA spokesman David Worlock likes to point out, in all eight years the tourney has included the 68-team field, a First Four team has advanced to the round of 32. That includes the first year, when VCU went from the First Four to the Final Four in 2012. And as someone who works in the truTV studio the nights of those doubleheaders, I can tell you that some of the most exciting games of the tournament are played between the two No. 16 seeds. That game is like a Super Bowl to those kids. If I could make one tweak to the format, I would play each game between an at-large team and an automatic qualifier so we get eight bites at the Cinderella apple.
• Finally, I gotta give a hearty congrats to Detroit guard Antoine Davis, who last week broke Stephen Curry’s record for most 3-pointers made by a freshman in a season. Davis’ mark is at 128 with one game still remaining. He has made 38.3 percent of his attempts and is the nation’s third-leading scorer at 26.0 points per game. Davis, the son of the Titans’ coach, Mike Davis, who is best remembered for guiding Indiana to the 2002 NCAA championship game. I encourage you to read the feature that our Brendan Quinn wrote on the Davises at the start of the season. They are quite a compelling story.
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Five games I’m psyched to watch this week
Virginia Tech at Florida State, 7 p.m. ET Tuesday, ESPNU. There is still no indication as to when or whether junior point guard Justin Robinson, who is out with an ankle injury, will be back for Virginia Tech. (Apparently, Buzz Williams is using the Bill Belichick playbook when it comes to injury info.) But the Hokies did beat Duke without him, and they didn’t have a game over the weekend. They’ll need the extra days of rest and prep to get a road win over a Florida State squad that is well-equipped to take advantage of Virginia Tech’s lack of size.
Mississippi State at Tennessee, 9 p.m. Tuesday, SEC Network. In just two weeks we went from Tennessee getting exposed as overrated to proving once more that it’s a bona fide contender. The truth is somewhere in between, but closer to the latter. I’m interested to see whether the Volunteers can defend with the passion and precision they brought to their game against Kentucky on Saturday. If that’s their identity moving forward, then they are going to be at their best.
Duke at North Carolina, 6 p.m. Saturday, ESPN. Questions about the ACC title or No. 1 seeds are secondary to the status of Zion Williamson’s sprained right knee. This game will take place 2½ weeks after he got hurt, and it will be the first one where the Blue Devils would really, really like him to play. Duke needs Williamson healthy, strong and sharp for the postseason.
Oklahoma at Kansas State, 6 p.m. Saturday, ESPN2. The Wildcats are tied with Texas Tech atop the Big 12 standings, a game ahead of Kansas. If Kansas State wins at TCU tonight, a win over the Sooners would end the Jayhawks’ 14-year streak of claiming at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season championship. (The same goes for the Red Raiders, who need wins vs. Texas tonight and at Iowa State on Saturday.) I’ll believe it when I see it.
Michigan at Michigan State, 8 p.m. Saturday, ESPN. For most of the season, we thought this game would decide the Big Ten title. Now it looks as if it will decide who finishes second to Purdue. Both these teams are sputtering down the stretch because of injuries. Fortunately for Michigan, early reports that Charles Matthews could be done for the season because of his ankle injury were incorrect, and now John Beilein is saying he expects Matthews to be back relatively soon. That’s especially important for a Wolverines squad that was already lacking in depth.
This week’s AP ballot
(Last week’s rank on my ballot in parentheses)
- Virginia (3)
- Gonzaga (4)
- North Carolina (5)
- Kentucky (1)
- Tennessee (11)
- Duke (2)
- Purdue (8)
- Michigan (10)
- LSU (9)
- Houston (7)
- Texas Tech (18)
- Michigan State (6)
- Florida State (21)
- Marquette (12)
- Kansas State (13)
- Kansas (23)
- Nevada (15)
- Cincinnati (17)
- Virginia Tech (NR)
- Wisconsin (16)
- Wofford (24)
- Buffalo (25)
- Maryland (14)
- Washington (20)
- UCF (NR)
Dropped out: Iowa (19), Louisville (22)
I had some reshuffling to do at the top of the ballot. For starters, I had to account for Kentucky’s loss at Tennessee. It was a pretty one-sided game, but then again so was Kentucky’s win over Tennessee in Rupp. That game was only two weeks ago, so it’s a pretty big factor. Also, Kentucky didn’t have Reid Travis in the second meeting, and although I doubt he would have changed the outcome, I have to assume he would have made the Wildcats more competitive. Plus, Travis is coming back soon. If he were out for the year, I would have moved them down further. As it stands, I felt that at the very least, Kentucky should stay ahead of Tennessee. As you can see, I rewarded the Vols more than I punished the Cats.
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I have a similar set of contrasts to assess when it comes to ranking Duke. The Blue Devils still don’t have Zion Williamson, but he’s coming back soon. That didn’t mean I could just wipe away their loss at Virginia Tech, which, after all, is still missing starting point guard Justin Robinson. This will be an interesting week for Duke as it travels to Chapel Hill on Saturday. If Williamson is back and if the Blue Devils win that game, I anticipate reinstalling them as my No. 1 team.
Gonzaga was No. 1 in last week’s AP poll, so I am assuming that will remain the same. I went with Virginia because I had the Cavaliers ranked ahead of Gonzaga last week. As you know, I am not one to automatically raise a team’s ranking just because it beats teams in a weaker league. Clearly, there is a great case to be made for either team to be ranked No. 1. Just keep in mind that Virginia has lost two games all season, and both were to Duke. The Cavs are also No. 1 on KenPom. So they’re my choice.
I try not to get too beholden to previous rankings. If I believe a team is good enough to leapfrog teams, I will adjust accordingly. You’ll notice I’ve got North Carolina at No. 3, even though the Tar Heels lost to Kentucky earlier in the season. I noticed a few of my Twitter followers wondered why I still have LSU ranked behind Kentucky and Tennessee even though the Tigers beat both of them – Kentucky on the road and Tennessee at home without their leading scorer, Tremont Waters. There’s no great answer there, but for many weeks LSU wasn’t even ranked while the other two were ensconced at the top of my ballot. Sometimes it’s just hard to break out of those shackles.
When we get to the end of the regular season, we have seen so much of those teams that it doesn’t make sense to over-react to one bad game, or even two. Houston’s loss at home to UCF hardly negates all the winning the Cougars have done the last four months, so it only merited moving them down three spots. It did, however, warrant ranking UCF for the first time this season. Likewise, even though Marquette lost twice this week (at Villanova and at home vs. Creighton), we all know how good the Golden Eagles are. Ditto for Washington for its loss at Cal, although the Huskies probably would have probably dropped out if they hadn’t escaped Stanford on Sunday. Maryland needed to be demoted for losing at Penn State, but less so for falling at home to Michigan.
On the other hand, Iowa got blitzed by two mediocre teams this week. There’s no reason to keep the Hawkeyes ranked after those abysmal performances. And Louisville’s win at home over Notre Dame did not make up for that bad loss at Boston College, which was the Cardinals’ fourth in a six-game stretch.
I’ve only got one more ballot to submit before the start of the NCAA Tournament. That will be a little bittersweet, but it’s a small price to pay to be alive and well during the most wonderful time of the year.
See ya next Monday, Hoopheads.
(Top photo of Fran McCaffery by Jeffrey Becker/USA Today Sports)